The day before winter break is often filled with anticipation for students. Their minds aren’t always on their school work. That is not the case in Jessica Herb’s fifth grade class at Pine Bush Elementary School.

That’s because Herb’s class is very excited about this last day of school. It is their day to provide living history to their fellow students and many guests.

Herb explained that each month, her class focuses on a different reading genre. In December, the genre is biography. The students’ final project? To learn about the historical figure of their choice and become that person for the living history event.

The range of public figures chosen by the students was pretty amazing, with popular figures like Michael Jackson and Princess Diana, Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle, astronaut and first man on the moon Neil Armstrong, inventor Henry Ford, former President George W. Bush, the original television chef Julia Child and the first female African-American published poet Phillis Wheatley, to name a few.

Each student, after spending the month learning about their chosen subject, found quotes from each of them, used multiple sources to put their biography together and dressed the part. Students and staff walked up to the student’s desk, pressed a button and the fifth grader gave a long or short version of their biography.

“This project keeps their interest,” said Herb, not always an easy task at this time of year. “I get 100 percent attendance the day before the break.”

This is the second year Herb has been putting this project together.  And not only do the fifth grade students learn from it and enjoy doing it, the entire school benefits as classes take their turn coming through, learning all about these historical figures.